Disaster at Sea

Jon is really into fishing now. In fact, we took a trip to the Bass Pro Shop in Rancho Cucamonga (yes there really is a place named Rancho Cucamonga). Jon calls it Disneyland for rednecks. And it is, no lie. There are stuffed dead moose (mooses? moosi? meese? whatever the plural is), a river runs through it (wait, wasn't that a movie with Brad Pitt??), and there is a waterfall (seriously?). The place is totally awe inspiring. And it has every camping/fishing/hunting/outdoors item you would never know you need. And more important - fudge! Anyways, I bought him a new fishing rod for his birthday and he wanted to try it out at my dad's house in Laguna Beach. My dad (who used to fish alot) told him to go at high tide (mistake #1). Jon decided to wear shorts and not bring a jacket (mistake #2). Don't worry, it gets worse. They went to Fisherman's Cove which has a rock ledge on one side which, when hit by the waves makes this huge wall of water (can you see where this is going?). Anyway, poor Jon was fishing by himself (he is 14, and taller than my 19 year old) while I took my dad back to the house (the high tide was hard on his back because of the wave action) and I was just coming back down the steps when the tsunami hit him and swept away his new tackle box, shoes, chair, phone (yes he brought it - mistake #3), bucket, etc. Not to worry, we got back everything but one shoe. I think I saw it floating on the water off the island of Catalina :). Jon was drenched and we tried resusitating the phone (which was new at Christmas) but it was declared dead on arrival. The Titanic has nothing on the Arroyo family! Oh, and just to top things off, Jon has a cold now.

Fancy Stores for Skinny People

Yesterday, Karen and her good friend, Mary Ann, joined me for a day at Santa Monica. We started off with brunch at this wonderful Mexican food place called Border Grill. It was yummy. Then we decided to stroll down the Third Street Promenade which is super fun because there are tons of people, street performers and great stores! These are the type of stores which are outside of my norm for shopping... Anthropology, Abercrombie and Fitch.. stores like that... really expensive, but full of neat stuff. The thing that got me was that they seem to cater to the anorexic. The normal size was 2, 4 and maybe some 6's. Heaven forbid someone of my great size even try and find something to try on! There were jeans there that looked like they would only fit thighs with a diameter of 8 inches! I don't think I could get my upper arm into some of them! Don't people in Santa Monica eat! Too bad because they have some great restaurants! I just don't want to live out the rest of my life eating carrots and drinking water! Well, we returned to the Valley where the sun was blazing hot, there's no sight of the ocean let alone any ocean breeze, but at least we can find clothes for normal people in the stores!